Profile Information

Recent Profile Visitors

Yeah I'm wondering how many questions I may have misread in Paper 1, I know I've messed up 2 already :\. I ended up doing Questions 6 (how minerals are taken up from soil and glycolysis), and Question 7 (ribosomes and DNA replication). I really regret not doing Question 8 though, as the placenta and hormones questions have been repeated so many times but I didn't know much about fertilisation.. At least Question 1 of Paper 2 was possible to interpret, there's been a few times I've looked at past Bio papers and been kind of stumped as to what to put. Likewise, I'm expecting a 6 due to misreading stuff and losing a mark on half the parts in Question 1 Paper 2..

OK I'll start this topic now it's been 24 hours (well way more for me). How did everyone find the papers? I thought Paper 1 was of a similar standard to previous years I guess, a few annoying questions in there but nothing too crazy. Paper 2 questions were also pretty good, as the Section B questions were quite varied. I'll wait until other people post until I realise where I've messed up..

Haha yeah, Questions 5 and 6 in Section B, enthalpy calculations = less explaining = less marks lost explaining poorly. The one thing I was annoyed with was the buffer calculation (since I'm pretty bad at those), but I had lots of time to work on it. Did anyone else get pH = 4.61?

How did everyone find Papers 1 and 2? I thought that Paper 2 seemed remarkably easy in comparison to other years, and the calculations were rather basic.. I'm not sure how that would translate into the grade boundaries for this year though. Paper 1 was OK, a few strange questions but overall it definitely felt easier than some previous years.

The main issue with Paper 2 was time... I finished Paper 1 within about 45 minutes so I had lots of time to go over things and check carefully, but I took a similar approach in Paper 2 (as I was usually easily within the time limit in practice papers). In the end, I only just finished and didn't have much time to go over things, and a lot of other people noticed the difference in length too. Two things I noticed (well that I'm losing marks in): Paper 1 - The sin100, cos100 question; I'm not sure how many marks would be lost for not having the negative in part a) as it was in the second quadrant (that messed up all my answers for that question..) Paper 2 - The binomial expansion question, as everyone I know took one of two methods which both seemed to work (Pascal's triangle or N c R) - I got ±0.5 with Pascal's triangle but others got ±square root of x (something along those lines) with N c R. Yes, that was what I got too!

Maybe I should have given the prose another chance; I've tended to write my commentaries on prose until recently, as all of the analysis done on Paper 2 poems has allowed me to improve my analysis of poems in general. I focused upon the relationship between the woman and the cat, exploring how the poet expresses this relationship in an inverted manner to allow the reader to see equality between human and animal. Many of the techniques in the poem related to the personification of the cat, and the imagery and tone linked back to how the poet was aiming to portray the cat as an equal. But yes, the poem was quite unusual and simplistic in a way, but I still thought there were many techniques hidden in it that could be related and analysed.

check out this and see when you can post about it: http://www.ibsurvival.com/topic/22042-exam-discussion-schedule/. Make a topic under http://www.ibsurvival.com/forum/26-exam-discussion/ if you want to discuss Maths (this is the English topic haha), and wait until a moderator approves it. Note it's 24 hours after GMT (not Australian time, I know it's been way more than 24 for us). So the 24 hours for Maths Paper 1 passes some time late tonight..

How did everyone else find Paper 1 in English A1 SL? Just thought I'd start this to see how other SL students thought of the paper, and what you might have picked up. Not sure about the prose (barely looked at it to be honest) but I thought that the poem was OK (in comparison to previous papers at least), there was plenty to discuss.

I can't really comment on what part of the SL syllabus I found hard (it wasn't too bad for me), but HL Chapters 8, 9 and 10. Acid and bases calculations & buffers, and HL organic in general is just crazy in my opinion, and those topics are really common Section B Paper 2 questions. Of course my opinion is going to be different to yours and other people's, but Periodicity is something you can go over a few times and understand it, feeling pretty happy if you get it in the exam. Organic on the other hand...

Here's some of the IB-specific requirements for med at some Australian unis. UNSW: Minimum score required: 37/45 (you'll need much higher!). Assumed knowledge: English. University of Adelaide: Minimum ATAR: 90. Prerequisites: One of Maths (equivalent to SL), Chemistry or Biology. Monash University: English A1 - minimum score is 4 in HL. Chemistry - minimum score is 4 in HL. University of Queensland: OP1 required. University of Sydney: Undergrad is only a combined course, with ATAR 99.95 (except Music-Med), but realistically only a 45 gets you in. Maths required for commerce/eco/science + medicine combined degree. James Cook Uni: Successful completion of English, Chem and Maths B; Maths B in QLD = Maths HL or SL . There's many more, but usually Maths isn't required. However, for all universities you need a very good IB score to be competitive of course. Also, are you applying as an international student to Australia?

Sorry, I don't even understand what I meant in that last paragraph . If correcting the externality, MPC/MPB would shift left, depending on the type. It helps to visualise it with a diagram though. Using that example, D = MPB, and is to the right of MSB, hence Q is supplied (whereas Q* is socially optimum). Correcting the externality involves shifting the D curve (MPB) to the left so that MPB = MSB. Negative production: S is too great, hence MPC > MSC - to correct, supply must be decreased, so MPC shifts left to MSC. Negative consumption: D is too great, hence MPB > MSB - to correct, demand must be decreased, so MPB shifts left to MSB.

As smoking would be regarded as a negative consumption externality (due to the effect on third-parties via consumption, not production - textbooks usually use pollution emitted from production of X as a negative production externality), you'd be correct in stating that the MSB curve is to the left of the demand curve (MPB). Your book might be referring to a negative production externality at this point, as a negative consumption externality (like cigarette smoking) has S = MPC = MSC (social costs = private costs). To determine where the 'new curve' would be, draw it so that if a negative externality is incurred, the quantity supplied is greater than social optimum (Q at which MSC = MSB). You're also right in saying that negative production externalities have MPC > MSC, thus the S curve shifts right and therefore quantity produced is greater than Qopt, and negative consumption externalities have MPB > MSB in which the D curve has shifted right so quantity produced is also greater than Qopt. Sorry if I explained it badly, try reading this page on Tutor2U if you haven't already: http://www.tutor2u.n...ernalities.html